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An increase in community engagement by governments across Australia’s three-tiered federal polity conforms to international trends. It represents a multidimensional institutionalization of participatory democracy designed to involve the public in decision-making. Increasingly, it is a practice which displays the markers of professionalization, including (self-described) professionals, professional associations and a code of ethics. The individuals who design, communicate, and facilitate community engagement are placed in a unique position, whereas most professions claim to serve both their client or employer and a greater public good, community engagement practitioners play these roles while also claiming to serve as “guardians” of democratic processes. Yet the claimed professionalization of community engagement is raising some questions: Is community engagement really a profession – and by what criteria ought this be assessed? What tensions do community engagement practitioners face by “serving multiple masters,” and how do they manage these? More pointedly, how can ethics inform our understanding of community engagement and its professionalization? This chapter examines the case for the practice of community engagement as a profession using Noordegraaf’s (2007) pillars of pure professionalism as a guide. It then explores some practical examples of the tensions practitioners may experience. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the future direction of community engagement given its positioning.

As academics, quantitative and/or qualitative methods are at the heart of the research we conduct and the insights we seek to share with the world. However, this does not always translate into impactful engagement for the stakeholders and communities we engage with, despite the evidence that indicates the potential to do so. One of the critical ways that academics can generate impact is through community and stakeholder engagement – developing networks and external partnerships that work collaboratively to generate change. Research indicates that more participatory methods of engagement where stakeholders can co-create solutions have the greatest transformational potential for impact. The key to differentiating meaningful and impactful stakeholder engagement from distinct concepts such as communication or consultation is understanding the level of influence the stakeholder will have on the decision. This chapter provides a practical guide for academics to build their practice in impactful engagement throughout their career through eight simple steps. Using the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) spectrum of public participation, an example of how engagement methods can be selected to build impactful engagement skills throughout the academic career is illustrated. Impactful engagement has the capacity to bring diverse voices and perspectives together to shape decisions and change, and in so doing, create greater impact.

Previous corporate social responsibility (CSR) research has mainly revolved around the “usual target” (that is, fans and consumers) that invest money, time and energy in supporting their teams in isolation while largely ignoring individual members of the public. Building on social exchange theory and social media analytics, the authors examine the social outcomes of CSR aggregated from individual members of society's perceived benefits (intangible and psychological).

Raw data were drawn from the CSR-focused Twitter accounts of six professional leagues (i.e. @nbacares, @nflplay60, @InspireChange, @thewnbpa, @Pr_nhl, @Mlsworks and @Mlbsocial). The authors collected historical data from each CSR-focused Twitter account (N = 136,076) from March 2010 to September 2022.

After conducting sentiment analysis of public perceptions, the majority of tweets (53%) were neutral, 39% were positive and 8% were negative. All CSR-related accounts received more positive tweets about their initiatives than negative ones did. The most prevalent positive topics are supporting the community, education, youth wellness and health and inspiring the young generation. The most prevalent negative topics were related to fake, hypocrite, hate and social justice.

The study contributes to the CSR-sport literature by incorporating members of the general public into the stakeholder ecosystem and empirically examining their perceptions of sport organizations' CSR activities. Also, by drawing on the social exchange theory and the unique nature of social media, the authors highlight when and how the public expresses positive, neutral and negative perceptions over time. Finally, it joins a small but growing body of research that adopts the application of big data to sport management, and it measures the sentiment, frequency, distribution and topics of tweets, thereby determining positive and negative public perceptions.

Over the past two decades, the growing number of women entering the police profession has challenged the historic male dominance of the occupation. Research from the USA and the UK has examined whether men and women police differ in their assessments of working conditions, occupational opportunities, and other aspects of police work. To date, however, no attempt has been made to conduct a quantitative study of gender across socio‐political contexts or to assess the applicability of models constructed in those two countries to Caribbean nations. This study employs survey data from a sample of police constables and their immediate supervisors in three Caribbean nations. The survey queried 1,237 constables and supervisors. A total of 11 per cent of the respondents were women. Constables were asked about various aspects of policing, working conditions, and the nature of their duties. The questions were based on 24 constructs evaluated in the US and UK literatures. Few differences between genders emerged from comparisons within nations, although such differences have been documented in the USA and UK. These findings suggest that gender models used in developed nations do not necessarily explain differences in developing nations. Differences were observed across the three nations, however. Implications for future research on gender and policing are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the origins and development of national inventories in Scotland and Wales from paper-based records to digital databases. The impact of digital technologies on data management and dissemination is considered.

Exploring the evolution of historic environment inventories in Scotland and Wales highlights the common issues faced and solutions adopted. In considering the longue durée, the durability and flexibility of information is highlighted.

Inventories may combine locational, descriptive and visual material to help document a fragile, finite and non-renewable resource. They provide the evidence base for decision making and stewardship in managing change, stimulating interest in and valuing the historic environment. Contribution to recognised inventories should be a requirement for activities documenting the historic environment. Digital technologies shape the expectations of a modern inventory and associated digital archives, with emphasis placed on the repurposing of inventory contents so that they can better contribute to an information network serving multiple audiences.

Transformation from paper records to digital data has radically enhanced and democratised access to knowledge about the historic environment. Digital delivery helps place heritage data within mainstream societal activities and fosters public interest and engagement in the historic environment.

Inventories are the foundation building blocks of informed decision making. Digital technologies have transformed these resources to help place the historic environment within mainstream societal activities and interest.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

Much of the literature on citizen participation in the budget process links the council-manager form of government with higher levels of citizen participation, assuming the council-manager form represents professional administration. This is contradictory to the reality that different forms of government have “borrowed” features from each other and many now have mixed forms of government (i.e., adapted). The literature also contains ambiguities about city managers’ role in participatory budgeting. We review the literature and identify three competing theories about the role of professional managers in the budget process. We directly examine the effect of city managers in terms of their professional dimensions, institutional environment, and individual willingness to represent citizens. Using survey data from Florida, we demonstrate that managers’ professionalism, perceived political environment, and attitude toward citizen input are important factors explaining local governments’ adoption of participatory budgeting.

This paper examines the impact of a citizen initiated public participation process on preparers and presenters of digital visualizations for spatial design decision making. Visualization for public participation enables communication between professionals and laypeople to occur with far greater success than through conventional methods. Further, visualization utilizing real-time immersive technology allows for far more effective communication of the spatial impact of design proposals than conventional media offer, facilitating negotiation and interaction with space by providing the means to virtually walk around a digital model. In addition, the effectiveness of real-time immersive visualization in bridging the public-professional communication gap can empower the public, offering the opportunity to confront professionals and to force engagement in a process of public participation on the public's terms.

Through discussion of a case study from the University of Toronto's Centre for Landscape Research (CLR), this paper examines the impact on the visualization process when the public are able to invert the conventional model of public participation by initiating the dialogue with professionals. This paper argues that a citizen initiated public participation process increases the necessity for a sound methodology and code of ethics of visualization for public participation. When the public are able to utilize technology to invert the conventional public-professional role, issues of validity, reliability and ethics are placed at the forefront of the discussion greatly increasing the scrutiny placed on both the technology and those preparing and presenting the visualization.

Social networking sites (SNSs) have established an important presence in our daily lives and at work. This study explores how public service professionals use SNSs and how they perceive the potential of SNSs. This study further examines the relationship between the use of SNSs and social trust and civic participation. Last, this study identifies the challenges and opportunities facing public administration practitioners who use SNSs to build collaboration and promote public interests. Based on the nationwide survey results, this study provides a broader understanding of SNS use among public service professionals. Furthermore, it also provides management recommendations on how public service professionals can make full use of SNSs to facilitate their interactions with other public service professionals and citizens, and foster collaboration to pursue public interests.